Tiny House Living---'70's Style

Our trailer looked just like this one.  Same size, same year.  The only difference between this one and the one we had is that ours didn't have the aftermarket awnings on it that this one does.  I found a sales video for this trailer from Bullyan RV in Duluth, MN.  All the photos in this post are taken from that video, made and originally posted by Andy Johnson.

According to HGTV, the latest craze in homebuying is that of tiny house living.  I find this quite interesting because my family and I lived in a "tiny house" way back in the late '70's.  We just called it a travel trailer.  It was 7'9" wide and 30 feet long--just under 240 square feet--and all five of us lived in it with all the comforts of home.  We had full-sized appliances, a real bathroom, actual closets, a queen-sized pull-out bed for my parents, two twin beds for my brothers and an almost full-sized loft bed for me.  These are things that seem to be missing from most of the tiny houses shown on TV and on the market today.

Back door of the trailer

Rear windows of trailer, showing the rear factory awning that ours had, too. 
The little window at the top is where my "room" was--in the loft at the rear of the trailer.

Where my parents bed was, in the front of the trailer, when it was pulled out made a queen-sized bed.  When it was put away, the area became our dining room at mealtime and our living room the rest of the time.

Front room of the trailer. 
The couch that became my parents' bed
had its back up against the horizontal paneling in this picture. 
The couch was green and yellow plaid.
I think we had some chairs in here, too, but no blue and red futon. 

 



Closet, Bed and Nightstand. 
Between the bed and the closet was access to the back door. 
The bed was pulled out at night to be long enough to sleep on.

My brothers' beds were in the back.  They pulled out to become real twin-sized beds, but then all folded away to double as a playroom during the day.  My bed was above theirs.  It was a fold-down storage area for all our sheets and bedding during the day, and I could always fold my loft down for privacy to read or relax while my brothers played below.

The other bed in the back.

 Then at night, it became my own private room.

A place to play, with underbed storage. 
Plenty of room for two little boys and sometimes their big sister, too

 

My "room".  This was the loft over my brothers' beds. 
You can see a small crack of light showing in the top left of this photo. 
There were windows at the top on each side for ventilation
when you were sleeping there.

TV Stand.  There is a cabinet with a drawer
and door below and a cabinet above, too

In the living/dining/parents' bedroom was our full-sized TV, in its own special nook.  This had
storage both above and below it.  The bottom part was for toys and games, while in the top cabinet was kept phone books and mail and other miscellaneous items.

Cabinet above the TV stand and Refrigerator (and thermostat)



Kitchen sink, pull out cutting board, along with the original cover
that was over the sink, and stove. 
I believe it was a gas stove, but I'm not sure.

The kitchen had a real stove and refrigerator, not just the "tiny" ones found in many of the tiny houses today.   We didn't yet own a microwave, so all the cooking had to be done for the family in those appliances.  It had a full-sized kitchen sink and lots of cabinets and drawers for all the kitchen implements a family of five would need.  

Range hood and kitchen cabinets



The tub with a seat at the back of it.  This was quite a luxury!

The bathroom had a full-sized shower in a real tub that I thought was really cool because there was a seat at the back of it.  I had never had such a wonderful luxury item!  Many tiny houses today have just a hose from the bathroom sink with a shower head on it.  But this was like a castle compared to the modern tiny houses.  The tub was an absolute

Matching bathroom sink and countertop

necessity as my brothers were still quite young.  The older one would have been about six or seven, and the younger one was three or four.  So they were not quite old enough to take showers on their own yet.  It had an actual toilet and bathroom sink, too, where we would all get ready for the day in relative peace and harmony.

La toilette and bathroom heater.

Top of Dresser between two closets.   There is a window here above the dresser.



Windows around the front of the trailer,
along with the storage above where the couch was,
as well as the clock and 8-track tape player.
The windows around the back were the same.

Across from the bathroom were two large closets and a dresser with a large window above it.  There was storage under my brothers' beds and above my parents' bed.  We were certainly not hurting for storage in our tiny house!

There was also a back door to the place because of its length.  This was located just before my
brother's bed at the rear of the trailer.  It also had awnings for shade attached to the front and rear. The front and back each had windows around all three sides.

We lived this way, in our portable tiny house, for two summers when I was in 5th and 6th grades, back in 1978 and '79.  I look back on those two summers with fond memories as they were the first two summers of our lives that our dad was able to actually be home everyday.  Before that, he was usually gone most of the week for his job.  In fact, most of the time he would leave Sunday night and not get home until the following Friday or Saturday and then just had to turn around and leave again.  But the trailer allowed us to go with him to the area of the state where he worked and allowed him to be home--what a treat!  It was an adventure, but it was also home and felt like home to have our whole family together.

We ultimately purchased a mobile home and later a house in that region so we could be closer to him year-round.   

We were quite comfortable and never felt like we were sacrificing anything to "live small".  We also never realized we were setting a trend for 40 years later!

The heart of the home--kitchen and dining room.